Petra Entering
by LizzChild
Summary: Petra's entrance into the world of Battle School and a bit of diving into her past. From her days on Earth with her family before Battle School to her days in as a member of Ender's Jeesh and beyond. There will be spoilers from the Shadow books. Please review if you can.
1. Beginnings

She had been hiding it for years. Always being smart enough to excel, but average enough to not make an impression on strangers. It was a delicate balance. Her revealing moment had to be perfect. When she was less than a year old, she was aware of the monitor sitting at the back of her neck. By the time she was a year and a half she had learned how to control her own thoughts so that the first layer, the layer she was sure they could understand in some way, never gave away her brilliance while she used the second layer to think freely.

Petra was not at all surprised when an officer of the International Fleet appeared at the door of her family's home. When the door opened, however, she was still relieved to see that it was not Colonel Hyrum Graff standing at the entrance. Yes, Petra knew who he was. She knew that he only came to Earth to recruit the absolute stand-out children. Having somebody other than Graff at the house meant that she hadn't been noticed. Not yet anyway. The officer at the door was Major Anderson. He was Graff's second in command so his presence still meant something. Petra would have to look into that as soon as he left.

Papa was the first to speak to the man. "Who are you?", he asked in common so the man would understand his words.

Mama quickly followed up with, "And what do you want here?"

Petra heard the man reply, "Your daughter sir. She is old enough to be tested and we do not want to waste time, so here we are."

"Do as you will, we both know it will happen anyway. Choose a room, we still remember the procedure." Papa didn't sound angry. He never sounded angry as far as Petra could remember, and she remembered everything that happened during her five years of life.

"Petra darling, please come meet this nice man," called Mama, "He would like to converse with you for a few moments.

Anderson couldn't help but comment on Mama's words. "You call to her as though she were older than five years. Why is that?"

At that, Mama put on her lecture face. "We do not pretend that our daughter is average. We've known from the beginning that she was born intelligent."

Petra found it was time to speak for herself. She entered the room speaking. "Isn't that why you're here, sir? To see if I am wise beyond my years? To see if I understand more than would be expected of others my same age? You're searching for the brightest stars of humanity's children and you've come to see if I am one of them."

Anderson looked bored with her words. Was it possible that he already knew everything about her? Even the one thing she fought most hard to hide? No. This was just what he had been trained to do. Show no signs of emotion towards the children he was sent to work with. "Young lady, I am here to administer a test. Nothing more, nothing less. You, however, are entitled to think whatever you want."

"I'll take your test," Petra replied as though she had a choice, "but only because I want this moronic device removed."

The Major acted as though he had not heard her.

Petra followed him into Stephan's baby room. She was somewhat disappointed in the Major for choosing such a room. If he expected her to do her best thinking in a smelly and uncomfortable environment then he clearly did not know most children. Although Petra already knew it would not phase her. But maybe, just maybe, the horrible environment was the exact reason it had been chosen. Congratulations Major Anderson, you've proven not to be a complete idiot after all.

For the next few hours, Anderson asked her a series of questions. Pointless questions that she knew were really just designed to observe a person's mental state. She answered honestly. These were not questions designed for intelligence. Her answers seemed to surprise the man. If a friend tried to take something that belonged to Petra, she would demand it back. If the item was not returned to her, or not returned in a timely manner, she would go on the offensive. She would bring the slimy weasel down until he knew to leave her alone. If he stole from her then they were clearly not friends.

Is there ever a right time to hurt somebody else? That seemed like an exceptionally stupid question to Petra. Didn't she just demonstrate that there was? Yes, she answered. If the person did something to hurt her in anyway or hurt somebody that she cared about then yes, it would be a right time to hurt somebody else. She thought about it further. If anybody got hurt in any way, shape, or form, that she knew without a doubt was undeserving of someone's ill-will, then the offender would be hurt.

Major Anderson clearly looked more puzzled than he realized, but this was fun for Petra. She was able to be honest about something for once. Even her parent's wouldn't have been given the truthful answers. He handed her a booklet. The written test. One more step. She had to analyze the questions so that she could get the perfect score for what she wanted, and what she wanted was in. Arithmetic, words, logic questions, memory work. All things that Petra enjoyed.

If you have eight balls, all equally sized, but with one heavier than the rest, how would you determine which one is heaviest while only using a scale twice. You are unable to tell which ball is heavier in any other way than the scale.

She pretended to contemplate the question for a while even though the answer was apparent to her from the second she read that she could only use the scale twice. Clearly she would have to weigh the balls in two groups of three first. Not use all eight of the balls at once like Petra knew many people would want to do. If the two groups of three were an even weight, then she would weigh two from the heavier group. If one of those two were heavier then she would have her answer. If both of the two were the same weight, then the ball left out would be the heaviest. If neither group of three were heavier then it would be one of the two balls left out of the eight and she would simply have to weigh them and see which one was heavier.

Anybody could have figured that measly question out. Well, maybe not, but those were the people Petra didn't want to be around.

This test had to be perfect otherwise she would either draw too much attention to herself or run the Fleet off of her trail forever. She finished the test quickly but she felt an eternity pass before she finished it. After her answers were scanned, it was mere moments before Anderson received her results. He contemplated for a moment before he announced, "We have one more test to conduct. We're going to need a DNA test before I leave today."

This confused Petra. There was no record of DNA testing in any of the Battle School's files. She considered refusing and telling the man to leave, but that would ruin all she had worked for and all that she had just endured. She would comply. Petra was going to do anything and everything she wanted to. This was just what she had to do to get there.

Major Anderson left without giving her any more information. She didn't know if she passed or failed. Left waiting for now. The circumstances were unusual. He should have told her before he left, given her time to say goodbye to her family or the knowledge that she would stay with her family. All she knew was that it was time to do some research.


	2. Searching

**My apologies for this chapter being uploaded so soon. It's still short and bulky but it's just a demonstration of Petra's state of mind/thought process after Anderson's visit. -Lizz**

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As she logged on to the nets, she remained on her Student's Access. There was no need to hijack a neighbor's at this point. She was simply doing research on the I.F. and Battle School. First she ran a simple search, filtering out all articles that did not include information on Anderson. The program included a face identification section. She used a sample from the vids at the door from when he first approached. From the articles remaining, she searched for anything that mentioned DNA testing. There were no matches. Petra decided to back up in the search and remove the inclusion of Anderson's name. It opened up three articles. Two were about identification. Just confirming that the child tested by the Fleet was really the child in question. They didn't want to end up with a missing child so that it looked like the I.F. had committed a kidnapping. The third article was about gender testing. It hadn't actually been done on any of the Battle School candidates but there was a thought that as genetic modification became more popular, gender identification might become more obsolete. The article had been published more than three decades before Petra had even been born. Could it be possible that she is the first one of these genetically modified beyond gender identification people? No. She was a girl. There was no question about it. The only difference between Petra and other girls was that she knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it.

She exited the nets and elected to ignore all three of the articles. No matter why Anderson wanted to test her DNA, she would not let it become an obstacle in front of her goals. Petra Arkanian didn't have obstacles. Where others saw obstacles, Petra Arkanian saw challenges. She had fun figuring out problems, even if she thought that they were menial. For instance, Petra's search program did not show up on the screen. Only a few buttons had to be pressed to activate it and then it ran with the desk's background programs. All she had to do was look away while she typed the information and look back after the program finished. It would show as though she had ran a regular search on the nets. She figured out the program while she was thinking about the second layer of thought. If something as complex as the brain had at least two layers that she could control, why couldn't she do the same with the desk? Everyone knew that there were underlying programs in every desk but as far as she knew, Petra was the only one who figured out how to use it at her age.

It was time to focus on her next step. Petra never wanted to be a leader, she just wanted to be the best and understood that the two things were not the same. It was her place to assist whoever her leader was. She would make them great and the entire world would know their name. First she had to get to battle school. The I.F. had about a decade to find their commander. That commander was not yet at Battle School, but he would have to get there soon. Petra knew that Battle School had their eye on someone already but the name was never mentioned. Maybe some didn't even know who it was, but Petra had to be at Battle School before him. She would be.

It was days before Petra heard or saw anything about her both from within and directed at her from the Fleet. She was beginning to think that it was possibly they didn't want her. Once she finally saw the order to return to her, Petra knew that all of her worries had been pointless. Of course they would want her. She knew they would see potential in her. A glimmer of excellence but not yet developed. They clearly didn't know anything about her. Or they knew what they wanted her to know. This was her biggest downfall. A nasty habit of doubting her own thoughts. She knew she was right but there was always the possibility that one day, she wouldn't be. That day would be avoided as long a Petra had any conscious control over herself and that would be until the day she died. For now, all she had to do was wait for the launch up to Battle School.


	3. Leaving

**More has been added 9/11/14 It's still very far from perfect but the next chapter will be posted soon!-Lizz**

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Less than twenty-four hours after Major Anderson appeared at the Arkainian's door, Petra was on her way to Battle School. All of the years of planning had paid off, now all she had to do was find the one who could lead the human race to complete victory over the Formics. Petra knew that an attack was coming. She would have known it even if she hadn't already read it on the Hegemon's secure network, it had simply been too long since there was any real activity with the Buggers. So it was up to one little girl from Armenia to find the savior of Earth and show others the path to following him. There was no pressure on Petra from anybody but herself and to her, it was the weight of the world because it pretty much was. Somewhere in the universe there was a kid who would save the world, but that same kid would need Petra.

The group of children headed to Battle School with Petra had apparently known for days that they were leaving. They had time to say goodbye to their family and friends if they had any. Petra did not. The IF officers gave her a few moments to let her parents know that she was leaving. They tried to protest, say that she could always go with the next group because she needed to think about this decision. They didn't know that Petra had made this decision years ago. How could they? She told them that it was her responsibility to go. Humanity was asking for her help, she had to go.

She could not eat for before she left. That did not matter, she knew the standard was twenty hours without eating before a launch and she was expecting to go. A man from the IF handed her a red and yellow jumpsuit. Not the most comfortable of attire but Petra figured that the IF wasn't too big on comfort. The children they recruit are trained for battle. For war. War. A concept that was interesting to Petra. Two sides, rarely more, fought until only one could and would continue on. Often the losing side would rise again some time later. Petra saw only one way to win all wars. Beat the enemy until they can never come back again. Obliterate them. That's what the kid she was looking for would have to do. No. That's what the kid Earth was looking for would have to do.

It took her all of one minute in null gravity to understand that there was no concept of up or down. She enjoyed the thought of being on her head and yet on her side at the same time. she could be simply curled up on a chair floating free through space. Free. Petra enjoyed that. Once she had gotten over the thought of null g it was on to the observation of her fellow battle school recruits. There were really no standout people. That was more or less to be expected as they were, after all, the brightest and best of their generation, in every aspect. However there was one guy seated two seats to Petra's left who decided to be a smart mouth. Petra took a mental note to keep an eye on him. At least throughout the first few months.


End file.
